The Force Awakens (Star Wars) (17 page)

The alerts that sounded within the Resistance base were like no other. Every warning telltale lit; every audible alarm went off. Confusion reigned until monitoring and detection systems finally settled on an explanation. An explanation that was impossible.

From his station, Lieutenant Brance looked over at where Leia stood beside C-3PO, scarcely able to put words to what his
instruments were telling him.

“General, the Republic command—the entire Hosnian system—it’s all—gone.” He stared incredulously at his readouts.

Stunned silence filled the control chamber. Some catastrophes were simply too overwhelming to draw immediate comment. Everyone knew the tragedy could not arise from natural causes: It had happened too quickly. That meant…

“How is it possible?”
C-3PO’s optics allowed him to rove from one readout to the next without having to approach them physically. “There is no record, no data relating to a weapon of such magnitude.” He looked to his right, suddenly alarmed, as Leia swayed where she was standing. “General, are you all right?”

Leaning against a console for support, she steadied herself. “A great disturbance—in the Force. Deaths
and passings. Too much death, too many passings.” Straightening, her expression grim, she walked over to confront the wiry, slight Admiral Statura. Despite his experience in battle, he was left as shaken by the revelation as anyone else in the room. What had just happened could scarcely be comprehended.

“Admiral,” she said, “we must find this new weapon’s point of origin. As soon as possible
and before it can be used again.”

Statura nodded tersely. “I’ll send a reconnaissance ship immediately.”

She acknowledged his response as Captain Wexley called to her. “General, we’re ready for you.”

It was to be a conference on strategy like no other, she knew. To confront a threat that exceeded everything else that had gone before it. She spared a moment’s thought for her envoy,
Sella, who had been on the Republic capital world when it had been destroyed. And another moment for all who had perished, regardless of their personal or political beliefs. First Alderaan, now the Hosnian system. No one, she knew, should have to be witness to the death of an entire world.

She had been subjected to two.

It must not be allowed to happen again.

The crowd of visitors
who had filed out of the old castle had turned their eyes to the sky. A light had appeared there, a new star bright enough to be visible in the daytime. There was much speculation as to its cause. Someone suggested that a star had gone nova, but there were no nearby white dwarfs in the section of sky in question. The stellar apparition was inexplicable, which in turn led to fear and uncertainty
among those gazing upward.

From a pouch, Chewbacca withdrew a ponipin and handed it to Han. Activating the compact device, Han aimed it at the light in the sky. Automatically, it linked to the much more powerful stellar navigation instrumentation on board the
Millennium Falcon
, providing a real-time reading of the bit of starfield under scrutiny. Within the ponipin’s lens, statistics and readouts
combined to create a picture of what was happening in the chosen corner of the cosmos.

Before he could voice an opinion, his fears were confirmed by someone behind him.

“It was the Republic. The First Order—they’ve gone and done it.” A concerned Finn looked past him. “Where’s Rey?”

That immediately changed Han’s focus. “Thought she was with you.”

A voice interrupted them, familiar
yet now turned uncommonly forceful. They turned to see Maz approaching.

“You three come with me. There’s something you must see.”

The subterranean corridor in the castle was one Maz had visited not long before. It was also a place to which she had not expected to return for some time. Circumstances, however, had changed.

A familiar door opened to admit her and those behind her. Dark,
treasure-filled, and in the distant dark, a box on a table. “You will need this.”

From the box she removed a lightsaber. Finn eyed it uncertainly, but even in the poor light, Han recognized it immediately.

Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber.

“Where’d you get that?” Han demanded.

“Long story. A good one—for later.” Surprising them all, she handed the weapon not to Han or Chewbacca, but
to Finn. “Your friend is in grave danger. Take it—and find Rey.”

Finn stared at the device. It felt comfortable in his hand. Lighter than a blaster. Was he worthy of such a gift? Only time and circumstance would tell.

Something potent and loud slammed into the castle, causing dust and rock to fall from the ceiling.

“Those beasts,” Maz said. “They’re here.”

For such a small
droid, BB-8 was remarkably persistent. Kneeling beside him, Rey continued to argue.

“No, you can’t. You have to go back. You’re important. Much more so than I am. They’ll help you to fulfill your mission, more than I ever could. I’m sorry.”

She would have continued but for the thrum overhead that drowned out her words as well as BB-8’s startled beeping. The fleet of First Order ships thundered
overhead, dropping toward the castle. The castle—where her friends still were.

Racing through the trees and back toward the castle, Rey slowed at the top of a slight rise. Wide-eyed, she could only hope that her friends had managed to flee the complex before the attack began in earnest. Swooping TIE fighters were methodically reducing the stone walls and towers to dust, while others strafed
smugglers and traders who were frantically running for cover. Their panicked flight was futile, as they were quickly intercepted by squads of stormtroopers who had landed nearby.

Turning to run in the other direction, she caught herself just in time as a shuttle touched down nearby. Without the slightest hesitation, the cloaked figure of Kylo Ren emerged and strode forward to join the battle.
A stunned Rey could only track him with her eyes. She had seen this man before, in a daydream. In a nightmare.

Beside her, a tree erupted in flame as splintered branches flew. One of the patrolling squads of troopers had spotted her and opened fire. Taking cover, she drew her blaster, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The moment of panic that ensued when it failed to fire vanished when she remembered
to slip off the safety. Once activated, the weapon proved as accurate as it was functional, taking down two of the troopers and giving the rest reason to pause their pursuit. Calling to BB-8, who was at her side in an instant, she started back into the woods and away from the scene of combat.

“Keep going, stay out of sight,” she told the droid. “I’ll fight ’em off.” A querulous beeping prompted
a brave, defiant reply: “I hope so, too.”

Emerging from behind the rocks and trees where they had taken cover from the devastatingly precise fire that had hit two of their number, the troopers resumed the search—but more cautiously than before. Spotting Ren moving through the debris, one trooper hurried to report.

“Sir, we’re still searching for Solo, but the droid that’s wanted was spotted
heading west, with a girl.”

At this Ren said nothing, but instead looked sharply in the indicated direction.

A
S THE ALIEN
woods closed in around her, Rey jumped at every sound, glanced sharply at every wind-rustled branch and falling leaf. Holding tightly to the blaster, she held off firing defensively in the direction of every movement for fear of alerting her pursuers to her location. Sensing something just ahead, she slowed and brought the blaster up. A figure stepped out from behind
a tree.

It was the nightmare, and he was wielding a lightsaber unlike any she had ever seen in the stories she had read. Its beam was an intense, burning red like a controlled flame, and near the hilt, a pair of shorter beams shot outward, perpendicular to the main shaft.

She fired, again and again. Each shot from her blaster he deflected with the lightsaber’s beam. Almost as if it were
a game, she thought in terror as she continued to fire. He was playing with her.

Until, evidently, he tired of it. He raised a hand, held it toward her,
palm outward. As she inhaled sharply, her hand froze on the blaster. She tried to turn, to run, but her legs refused to respond. She could only stand there among the trees, taking in slow, measured breaths, as he came toward her.

Halting
an arm’s length away, he studied her face from behind his mask. When he finally spoke, he sounded at once impressed and surprised. “You would
kill
me. Knowing nothing about me.”

Finding that her mouth and lips worked, she replied defiantly. “Why wouldn’t I kill you? I know about the First Order.”

“I would say otherwise. But that is a small thing. Simple ignorances are easily remedied.”
As he spoke, he walked slowly around her paralyzed body. Frightened, she tried to follow him with her eyes, but her head would not turn. “So afraid,” he murmured. “Yet I should be the one who should be scared. You shot first. You speak of the Order as if it were barbaric. And yet, it is I who was forced to defend myself against you.”

Having circled her, he moved even closer, peering into her
face, her eyes. Then the red lightsaber he held came up: close to her flesh, close enough to cast a red glow on her skin.

“Something.” He sounded mystified. “There is something…
Who are you?
”

Reaching the outdoors after having worked their way through mounds of debris, Han and the others kept to the cover of collapsed stone walls as they took stock of their surroundings. Maz turned
to Finn.

“Go. Find the girl and the droid.”

He looked back the way they had come. “Lost my blaster. I need a weapon.”

Displaying surprising strength for one so small, Maz grabbed the wrist holding the lightsaber and raised it up. “You have one!”

He stared down at her, then at the saber. Did she really expect him to use the old ceremonial weapon? Blasters he knew, and pulse rifles,
but he had never held a lightsaber in his life. Nor did he know anyone who had. Still, if Maz Kanata had that kind of confidence in him…He activated the device, admiring the lethal beam.

It made an excellent target for the stormtroopers who opened fire on them. Taking cover, Han and Chewbacca returned fire. No one noticed the troopers who had come up behind them—except Finn. Charging, he surprised
one trooper with the glowing blade of the lightsaber, then another. A third came at him with a close-quarters weapon and the two locked in combat. Despite lack of any training with a lightsaber, Finn was athletic and courageous. In tandem with such traits, the saber made him a formidable fighter.

Shutting down and belting his lightsaber, Ren contemplated his immobile captive. Reaching
up slowly, he touched her face. The pressure he applied was not physical. Refusing to meet his gaze, she looked away, straining with the agony of resistance, hardly daring to breathe. If only she could get a hand free, a leg—but no part of her body responded to her commands.

Surprised by what he was finding, Ren lowered his hand. Relieved of the mental intrusion, she sucked in great, long
draughts of air. His brows drew together and a reluctance to believe his own findings colored his comments.

“Is it true, then? You’re nothing special after all? You’re just a—Jakku scavenger?”

How did he know that?
she agonized as she stared back at him. Surely she hadn’t thought it! She’d tried to keep her mind blank, her memory locked, and still he had wormed his way in. He touched her
anew. This time the pain of trying to stave him off brought tears streaming down her face. He was within her mind and her thoughts, and there was nothing—
nothing!
—she could do to keep him out. To resist. But she kept trying, trying…

“Hmm…,” he murmured softly. “You’ve met the traitor who served under me. A minor annoyance grown larger than he
deserves. You find him more than tolerable.” He
drew back slightly, bemused. “You’ve even begun to care for him. A weakness, such distractions.”

Suddenly he put his face so close to hers that they were almost touching. “You’ve seen it! The map! It’s in your mind right now…”

She could hardly swallow as she strained to pull away from him, anything to pull away, to get him out.

She wanted to scream, but he would not allow it.

The trooper who had engaged Finn was big, strong, and agile. Finn realized the fight would have long since been over if not for the trooper’s regard for the lethal potential of the lightsaber. That didn’t stop him from finally knocking Finn to the ground and raising his own weapon for a killing strike—only to fall backward, shot before he could deliver the blow.

Rolling over, a relieved
Finn saw Han racing toward him, blaster in hand, with Chewbacca not far behind. The older man reached down and an unexpectedly powerful grip helped Finn to his feet.

“You okay, big deal?”

Finn had to grin at that. “I’m okay, yeah—thanks.”

They were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a dozen stormtroopers, acting in concert and with weapons aimed, atop a nearby mass of debris.
Han started to bring his gun around, hesitated. The odds sucked.

“Drop the weapons!” the lead trooper ordered.
“Now!”

Surrounded by blasters, they had no choice but to comply. One trooper made a beeline for the lightsaber and picked it up. Han’s thoughts were racing as a second squad of troopers appeared behind them.

“How are we gonna get out of this one? There’s too many of ’em,”
he muttered to Chewbacca. When no reply was forthcoming, he added, “Any ideas?” The Wookiee moaned a terse reply, to which Han responded with a half sneer. “Very funny.”

“Hands on heads. Let’s go.” The lead trooper gestured in the direction of a parked transport. “Try anything and I’ll shoot your legs off.”

They didn’t try anything. There is a time to take chances and a time to wait for
opportunity, Han knew. What he didn’t expect was that the latter would put in an appearance so soon.

He had never been so happy to see a squadron of X-wings.

Accompanied by other attack craft, the familiar shapes came in low and fast, roaring over the lake and the forest as they blew apart the First Order ships whose pilots, feeling themselves secure, had nearly all landed their craft
in the vicinity of the destroyed castle. A perplexed Chewbacca barked his surprise at the unexpected appearance of the non-Republic ships.

“It’s the Resistance!” Han yelled, as hope surged within him.

Marked in black, one particular X-wing swooped in dangerously low, attacking at treetop level. Blast after blast took out parked TIE fighters, clusters of troopers, and support vehicles.
Whoever was piloting was skilled enough to fire repeatedly without wasting a single energy burst.

As the captives dove for cover, another blast scattered their captors as they tried to fight back armed only with hand weapons. When the dust cleared enough for them to see, the three rose, and Han and Chewbacca recovered their weapons. Reaching for a trooper’s blaster, Finn hesitated. It took
him a moment of searching to find the dropped lightsaber. Turning his gaze skyward, he followed the black-stained X-wing as it looped around in an impossibly tight arc, coming back for another run.

“That’s one helluva pilot!” he commented.

“Yeah,” Han yelled as he beckoned to the younger man. “How about you appreciate the maneuvers from behind cover before you get your admiring self shot?”

At the sound of nearby explosions, Ren ceased his probing, but he did not remove his hand from Rey’s face as he turned toward the now
ruined castle. She remained standing before him, unable to move, gazing blankly into the distance. A clutch of stormtroopers, breathing hard, came toward him through the trees.

“Sir,” the leader gasped, his alarm and dismay evident, “Resistance fighters!”

Ren considered. Though he was not technically in charge of battlefield decisions, no officer would attempt to overrule any decision he chose to make.

“Pull our troops out. We have what we need.”

The squad leader saluted, lingered a moment to look on in fascination as at a gesture from Ren the young woman standing motionless before him collapsed, and then he hastened to relay the command
lest his interest in something that was none of his business be noticed. He had no wish to join the woman on the ground in a state of oblivion.

The black-marked X-wing swooped low to take out yet another TIE fighter still on the ground. The retreating stormtroopers, rushing to board their transports, were easy targets for the castle’s survivors.

Two, running from the furious defenders,
were taken out by Finn, using a recovered blaster. As he looked around for more stragglers, Finn found his attention drawn to a singular figure striding through the edge of the forest. He almost looked away before catching sight of and identifying the burden the cloaked officer was carrying into a shuttle of atypical design. Finn’s spirits plunged.

“REY!!!”

Ignoring the fire of retreating
stormtroopers, paying no attention to the blasts that gouged the dirt around him, Finn raced toward the shuttle—only to watch helplessly as it lifted off and rose toward the clouds. Irrationally, he tried to follow the dark spot as it rose higher into the sky, running beneath it until it shrank to a dot and then finally disappeared.

“No, no, no, no…Rey,
Rey
!”

Ascending, other First Order
ships formed up in the wake of the shuttle, creating a tight escort to seal it off from any pursuit. Utilizing
oculars far more sensitive than those of any human, BB-8 tracked the battle group until it had receded even beyond his sight, lost at the edge of space. The droid paused for a moment, pondering.

Out of breath, tears glistening on his cheeks, Finn slowed as he drew alongside Han.

“He took her!” Finn managed to gasp. “He took her! Did you see that? She’s gone, Rey’s gone!”

Reaching out, Han shoved Finn aside without meeting the younger man’s gaze. “Get outta my way!”

Knocked off-balance, Finn slowed to a stop, stunned, his eyes fixed on Han’s retreating back. He was too shocked to know how to respond. As he stood staring, he noticed Maz a short distance away,
speaking to BB-8.

“Yes, it’s true, they have Rey now,” Maz said. “But we can’t give up hope.” She looked down at the droid, who beeped forlornly. “Go,” she told the droid. “Share what you have with your people. They need you.”

Finn walked over to her, and together Maz and Finn watched the droid roll off. “Looks like I’ve got some cleaning up to do, hmm?” Maz said. Then the diminutive smuggler
looked up at him and smiled in satisfaction. “Oh wow…I see something else now.”

“See what?” Finn asked.

“I see the eyes of a warrior.”

Han waited until the Resistance transport had settled itself completely before approaching the main access. His attention fixed on the portal, he looked away only to nod down at the round figure of BB-8, who had rolled up beside him. The droid’s
presence confirmed Han’s expectations. He would be surprised if either of them had guessed wrong as to who was going to exit the transport first. However, he was willing to be surprised.

He wasn’t.

Husband and wife stood regarding each other for the first time in years. Amid the smoke and drifting embers, neither said a word.
Emerging from behind the figure in the portal, C-3PO walked
out into the scorched field to confront the motionless droid beside Han.

“Beebee-Ate! Come here. I’m here to assist you in translating what—”

It took a moment for the countenance of the man standing beside the spherical droid to register on C-3PO’s preoccupied consciousness. A visage changed by time and altered by experience, it required a bit of additional visual processing before the
protocol droid was able to link it to the images in his memory.

“Oh! Han Solo! It is I, See-Threepio! You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.” Turning to the woman standing in the transport threshold, he continued excitedly. “Look who it is! Han Solo! Isn’t that— Excuse me, Prin— uh, General. Sorry. Come, Beebee-Ate. We need to settle on a procedure for debriefing.”

The
two droids moved off. Chewbacca found an excuse to study the configuration of a grove of nearby trees that had somehow survived the recent conflagration.

Breaking the awkward silence, Han finally spoke to Leia.

“You changed your hair.”

Her gaze dropped from his face. “Same jacket.”

“No. New jacket.”

Unable to stand it a moment longer, Chewie gave in to emotion. Stepping forward,
he wrapped Leia in a warm embrace that momentarily resulted in her disappearance within a mass of fur. Letting her go, he moaned a few words that contained far more depth of feeling than would be apparent to an outsider unfamiliar with the Wookiee language, and boarded the transport.

Left alone again, husband and wife also embraced. Han murmured over her shoulder, “I saw him. He was here.”

Hearing this, she closed her eyes. They let the silence take them.

D’Qar’s terrain was green and verdant, with flourishing trees that put those on most worlds to shame in size and appearance.